Laptop sound card- Do I need a new laptop? (really long....sorry)

100+ Head-Fier

Guys, first off I am limited in knowledge and new to head-fi. I have dove in head first though and I bought my first item (a Audeze isine 20) in January. So that is how “fresh” I am. So forgive the question if it seems stupid. From lots of trading and trying stuff out, I decided that a home headphone set up is for me. I now own a nice tube amp (ampsandsound SE-84 that is heavily modified as it was the personal amp of the owner of the company), a nice DAC with solid state balanced amp (Yulong DA9) and a Audeze LCD-3. I bought a refurbished laptop to be my music laptop and nothing else. I noticed my Yulong was showing a sample rate of 44.1 on every type of file I played. I have a few 196 and some dsd files as well. I found I had to change my J-River settings and realized that my laptop sound card will only play up to 96khz. Is there a option for something external that I will be able to play 192 and dsd from my current Laptop (only usb connections) and still use my DAC? Or..... any input is appreciated.

500+ Head-Fier

Joined:
Apr 12, 2009

Posts:
780

Likes: 127

Looks like a configuration problem to me
Assuming your DAC is connected by USB, the sound card (the onboard audio) is by passed.
If you have recent Win10, it has UAC2 (USB Audio Class 2).
This allows you to play > 96 kHz
If not, you have to install a driver as supplied by the manufaturer of the DAC

New Head-Fier

Also you can adjust the sample rate by going to, if you have Win 10,the Menu, Windows System, Control Panel, Sound, click on what is showing active and then click Properties, click the Advanced tab and you can then choose the best sample rate available.